Marion Wine Bar, Cutler & Co: Gertrude St, Fitzroy, home of popular venues for sale
53 & 55-57 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, is a “blue-chip” listing.
The home of Fitzroy institutions Cutler & Co and Marion Wine Bar has been served up for sale with an $8m-$8.8m price guide.
The estate of late hospitality and cultural figure Patricia O’Donnell has listed the 53 and 55-57 Gertrude St properties, which also feature an office and a large two-bedroom penthouse upstairs.
But Nelson Alexander Fitzroy director Arch Staver assured culinary connoisseurs the popular venues operated by star chef and restaurateur Andrew McConnell would carry on, with leases in place for the next two years with an option to extend for a further five.
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The building houses Marion Wine Bar …
… and Cutler & Co.
“We fully expect them to take that up,” Mr Staver said of the lease extension.
“Andrew is pretty entrenched in Gertrude St, and hospitality in the suburbs has really taken off with people fewer people making the pilgrimage into the city since the pandemic.
“But really, you can go down Gertrude St any time of the year and there is an extraordinary buzz about it.”
He said while the offering comprised three separate titles, they would be sold as one package, with expressions of interest closing December 16.
The agent had already received local, interstate and international inquiries into the blue-chip listing.
“Not surprisingly, almost everyone who has inspected the properties has at some point dined at Cutler & Co or Marion,” he said.
An upstairs penthouse is also part of the package.
The apartment has a leafy courtyard.
The listing’s appeals included a potential annual rental income of $350,000, assuming all the properties were leased – and which could be higher if the buyer turned the penthouse into another hospitality venue like “an amazing upstairs bar”, Mr Staver said.
He noted Six Degrees Architects designed the apartment, with two kitchens, a north-facing courtyard and a rooftop terrace, for Ms O’Donnell and her mother to live in.
Ms O’Donnell co-owned the award-winning Queenscliff Hotel from 1978 to 2002, later established the North Fitzroy Star, and was a board member of the State Library of Victoria, Abbotsford Convent and the Australian Art Orchestra, among other endeavours.
Patricia O’Donnell and her mum lived at the penthouse.
Andrew McConnell (right, pictured with fellow chef Adam D’Sylva) operates Cutler & Co and Marion. Picture: Jake Nowakowski
Mr Staver said while it had been controversial, businessman and philanthropist Daniel Besen’s recently approved Gertrude St development underpinned the stretch remaining “one of those extraordinary little streets that is internationally renowned”.
High-profile local groups, including the Fitzroy Residents Association, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, National Trust of Australia and Protectors of Public Lands Victoria, had voiced concerns the five-storey project would have too great an impact on the heritage qualities of the nearby UNESCO-listed Royal Exhibition Building, Nine Entertainment reported.
It is set to house Mr Besen’s family home, company headquarters, art gallery and shops.
Half of Marion stretches into a neighbouring property not included in the listing.
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